CALIFORNIA / Rain adds to strain on hillsides, levees / Showers to continue, but Thursday should bring a brief relief

Erin Allday, Leslie Fulbright, Chronicle Staff Writers

Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, April 5, 2006

Photo: PAUL CHINN

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A construction worker adjusts a tarp at a home under construction on Larchmont Drive that was red-tagged by officials after several significant cracks were found (lower right) in the foundation on 4/4/06 in unincorporated Broadmoor Village, CA.
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A construction worker adjusts a tarp at a home under construction on Larchmont Drive that was red-tagged by officials after several significant cracks were found (lower right) in the foundation on 4/4/06 in ... more

Photo: PAUL CHINN

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Photo: Michael Maloney

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Under threatening skies, dirt is dumped on the levee break of the El Capitan Canal also known locally as the Black Rascal Creek.
Two Central Valley levees broke today under pounding rain, threatening 50 homes and a trailer park in Merced and flooding farmland south of Sacramento, according to the state Department of Water Resources. A trailer park also was flooded when water overflowed from Black Rascal Creek. A levee on the other side of the same creek was breached, dumping water into a housing subdivision, said Michael Miller, a spokesman with the water resources department.
Photo by Michael Maloney / San Francisco Chronicle on 4/4/06 in Merced,CA less

Under threatening skies, dirt is dumped on the levee break of the El Capitan Canal also known locally as the Black Rascal Creek.
Two Central Valley levees broke today under pounding rain, threatening 50 homes ... more

Photo: Michael Maloney

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Justin Hamilton gets a tow from a truck as he heads down flooded Beachwood Drive near the levee break. Hamilton brought his boat to help relatives move possesions out of their flooded homes.
Two Central Valley levees broke today under pounding rain, threatening 50 homes and a trailer park in Merced and flooding farmland south of Sacramento, according to the state Department of Water Resources. A trailer park also was flooded when water overflowed from Black Rascal Creek. A levee on the other side of the same creek was breached, dumping water into a housing subdivision, said Michael Miller, a spokesman with the water resources department.
Photo by Michael Maloney / San Francisco Chronicle on 4/4/06 in Merced,CA less

Justin Hamilton gets a tow from a truck as he heads down flooded Beachwood Drive near the levee break. Hamilton brought his boat to help relatives move possesions out of their flooded homes.
Two Central Valley ... more

Photo: Michael Maloney

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CALIFORNIA / Rain adds to strain on hillsides, levees / Showers to continue, but Thursday should bring a brief relief

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More gray skies are expected to dump more rain on waterlogged Northern California today, adding to the misery of commuters and residents worried about soggy hillsides and soaked levees.

"I know this is going to come as a complete surprise, but we are expecting showers again Wednesday," said Diana Henderson, a forecaster with the National Weather Service.

The wet weather is expected to last until tonight, followed by a short break on Thursday and then another storm Friday bringing showers through the weekend.

The weather news was made worse Tuesday as a Caltrans worker repairing potholes in the rain was killed in San Jose. Authorities also said the Devil's Slide section of Highway 1 on the San Mateo County coast would be closed for at least a week, and two levees broke in the Central Valley, forcing evacuations.

Emergency crews also red-tagged a home in the 600 block of Larchmont Drive in Broadmoor Village near Daly City after rains caused the land below it to slip away. Heric DaLisaoi, a resident of one of the four homes beneath the hill, said county officials asked him to leave.

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"I will stay with my cousin for a week, as a safety precaution," DaLisaoi said while he packed water, food and clothes into a minivan. "They cut our power and turned off our gas."

In the Central Valley, two levees broke under pounding rain, threatening homes and forcing the evacuation of three trailer parks and an elementary school in Merced and flooding farmland south of Sacramento, according to the state Department of Water Resources.

Merced County officials passed a resolution Tuesday morning requesting the governor declare a state of emergency. But at a news conference Tuesday afternoon in the Capitol, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said the crisis was under control.

"It shows us again how important it is for us to concentrate on repairing and fixing our levees," he said. "The more rain we see, the more we see the threat."

A levee on Black Rascal Creek in Merced was breached Tuesday afternoon, dumping water into a housing subdivision and trailer park, said Michael Miller, a spokesman with the water resources department. On the Cosumnes River west of Highway 99 in Sacramento County, a private agricultural levee broke, sending floodwaters over farmland, Miller said.

Numerous roads were closed and more evacuations were expected. County inmate crews were placing sandbags in the area, and the Merced Red Cross set up an evacuation center at Merced High School. About 25 residents were staying there Tuesday.

Overall, the state's levees were holding and "working as they're designed to work," said Ted Thomas, another spokesman with the water resources department. He said the flooding so far has been minimal, and water resources officials are more concerned about possible flooding on the San Joaquin River as the Sierra snowpack starts to melt.

"We are expecting this rain to continue," Thomas said. "We're anticipating heavy snowmelt runoff following right on the heels of the rain. It's going to be a concern, especially on the San Joaquin."

Mudslides are increasingly becoming a threat to homes and roads.

Caltrans officials said the Devil's Slide section of Highway 1 will be closed for at least a week after several large boulders crashed to the road Monday night, further complicating repairs from two earlier slides that had buckled the pavement.

"We've got a new geotechnical issue to deal with now," Caltrans spokeswoman Lauren Wonder said. "We've got to get the slope stabilized above and below. We've got to make sure no more rocks come down the hill."

Highway 1 has been closed between Pacifica and Montara since Sunday. The highway serves as a commute route for thousands of workers who live along the San Mateo County coast.

Montara resident Theresa Keyes, who works at Golden Gate Regional Center near the Embarcadero in San Francisco, said the Devil's Slide closure turned her normal hour commute into 2 1/2 hours.

"It's a real adventure," Keyes said. "If it takes longer than a week to repair, I'll just have to look at long-term planning. My husband is talking about telecommuting or changing his hours."

The main road to Muir Woods National Monument is closed due to a slide, and the National Park Service is expecting Muir Woods Road near Panoramic Highway to remain closed for several days.

Meanwhile, a Caltrans worker died Tuesday after he was struck while fixing potholes in the rain on Highway 101 in San Jose, according to the California Highway Patrol. The man was killed on the northbound stretch of the highway, near Hellyer Avenue, at 1:17 p.m.

Officials say a flatbed tow truck slid out of control and hit the back of a Caltrans truck. The worker was pinned between that truck and an asphalt truck in front of him. The man, whose identity was not released, died instantly.

"It looks like this accident was caused by (the tow truck driver's) inattention and unsafe speed for the weather conditions," said CHP spokesman Steve Perea.

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